ABOUT HUGHES GLOVE WORKS
Hughes Glove Works brings more than two decades of hands-on experience as baseball glove repair experts, providing professional baseball and softball glove care focused on preserving the glove, restoring its performance and keeping it on the field.
BUILT FOR PLAYERS. BY FORMER PLAYERS.
HOW HUGHES GLOVE WORKS STARTED
Hughes Glove Works started the same way a lot of good glove stories do — with a glove that needed to be fixed.
In the early 2000s, I began repairing and relacing my own gloves and occasionally helping friends with simple repairs. As more players heard about the work, one glove turned into another, simple repairs became more involved, and what started as something I did because I needed it gradually grew into something much bigger.
By 2006, I was regularly working on gloves with a couple of friends helping along the way. Eventually it became just me, and in 2016 Hughes Glove Works officially became a business.
Today, HGW is still very much a hands-on operation. My son and daughter now get involved in the shop as well, making what started with a few gloves for friends something our family gets to be a part of.
ONE GLOVE TURNED INTO ANOTHER. TWENTY YEARS LATER, WE’RE STILL TAKING CARE OF THEM.
LEARNING FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BUILD THE GLOVES
As Hughes Glove Works continued to grow, I had an opportunity that completely changed the way I looked at glove care.
While working for Rawlings’ parent company, I had the opportunity to work directly with Rawlings glovesmiths and learn more about how their gloves were designed and built — not just how to repair them.
I learned why different gloves were formed the way they were, why particular construction methods were used, and how those decisions affect the way a glove should be maintained, repaired and broken in.
Working with the glovesmiths also helped me improve the techniques I was already using for relacing, repair and glove care. That knowledge became part of the way we approach every glove that comes through Hughes Glove Works today.
UNDERSTANDING HOW A GLOVE IS BUILT CHANGES HOW YOU TAKE CARE OF IT.
MORE THAN JUST FIXING A GLOVE
Every glove is different. Its age, leather, construction, position, condition and the way the player uses it all matter. That’s why we don’t believe glove care should be a one-size-fits-all process.
01
EVALUATE THE GLOVE
We look at the glove as a whole — leather condition, lace, structure, pocket and problem areas — before deciding what work makes sense.
02
PRESERVE WHAT MATTERS
The goal isn’t to make an older glove look brand new. It’s to preserve what makes that glove your glove while addressing the things affecting its performance or longevity.
03
DO WHAT THE GLOVE NEEDS
Sometimes that’s a full relace. Sometimes it’s one lace, a cleaning, a leather repair or simply some maintenance. We’ll recommend what makes sense rather than automatically pushing the biggest service.
THE GOAL ISN’T TO CHANGE YOUR GLOVE. IT’S TO HELP YOU KEEP PLAYING WITH IT.
LOCAL SHOP. NATIONWIDE SERVICE.
Hughes Glove Works serves baseball and softball players throughout the Chicagoland area while making the same professional glove-care services available to players across the country through our nationwide mail-in service.
Whether your glove is dropped off locally or shipped to our shop, it receives the same hands-on attention and care.
LOCAL GLOVE CARE
Local players and families can work directly with HGW for relacing, break-in, cleaning & conditioning, leather repair and ongoing glove maintenance.
NATIONWIDE MAIL-IN
Don’t live nearby? Ship your glove to Hughes Glove Works from anywhere in the country. We’ll complete the approved service and arrange tracked return shipping when the work is finished. When shipping in orders we recommend using PIRATE SHIP as your shipper, their cost is unmatched in the shipping arena.
THE SAME HGW GLOVE CARE — WHETHER YOU’RE DOWN THE STREET OR ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
YOUR GLOVE. OUR PASSION.
What started with repairing a few gloves for friends has grown into more than two decades of hands-on glove care. Through all of that growth, the approach hasn’t changed: understand the glove, do the work the right way and treat every glove like it matters — because to the player who owns it, it does.
20+ YEARS OF GLOVE EXPERIENCE
Working on baseball and softball gloves since the early 2000s.
KNOWLEDGE BUILT FROM THE INSIDE OUT
Experience working directly with Rawlings glovesmiths helped shape the way we approach glove construction, care and repair.
FAMILY-INVOLVED. PLAYER-FOCUSED.
What started with friends now includes the next generation of the Hughes family helping in the shop.